Last week, we highlighted how some of the big web/digital guns (Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Zynga) had banded together to oppose California’s proposed bill (the second of the state’s proposed privacy bills) that would require such companies to have users set up their privacy settings upon registration, and default such settings to private. Well, now large and small alike have aligned, with a number of startups (including Oodle, as you might have guessed from the image accompanying today’s post) joining the big boys in their fight against the proposed legislation… [paidcontent.org]

Speaking of Facebook (a mention counts), while this doesn’t have direct privacy implications at the moment, we’re more than sure it is relevant to the privacy discussion when we note that apparently The Social Network is recruiting a team of diplomats to handle government relations in a number of different regions globally… [San Jose Mercury News]

Nothing like voicing concern at the 11th hour…apparently over in Europe, the EU is set to put a 2009 privacy bill into action today that would require users’ consent in order for websites/companies to set cookies in their browsers, but yesterday a number of concerned parties expressed that they are unsure of how the law will be applied across the 27 EU nations… [Bloomberg]

And the privacy beat goes on…

So, perhaps you remember that despite the lack of any formal legislation mandating it, Mozilla, Microsoft and Apple have each implemented a “Do Not Track” feature in the latest versions of their respective browsers (Mozilla even just integrated the option into its Firefox Android browser as well). But one glaringly absent player in the browser game is obviously Google, as the company has yet to, nor may it have any plans to, integrate such a feature into its Chrome browser…apparently because of a lack of clarity around what is “tracking” on the web… [paidcontent.org]

But just because browsers have taken preemptive remedial measures doesn’t mean the rest of the appropriate players are doing the same. According to the firm Evidon, which provides icon technology that allows users to know when they’re being “tracked” and gives them the ability to opt out, only about 10% of advertisers have currently implemented the icon… [WSJ]

And while we’re pointing to a Wall Street Journal story about privacy, as you probably know the Journal has been hot on the digital privacy tip for a while now, taking a pretty firm and transparent perspective that not everyone is in love with… [paidcontent.org]

Obviously there are several bills currently under consideration in Congress regarding digital privacy, perhaps the most noted of which is John Kerry and John McCain’s “Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights,” but what would this piece of legislation really mean for us users? [EFF Deeplinks Blog]

Finally, despite the fact that its currently against “the law,” Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg firmly believes that children under 13 should be able to join Facebook…not surprising, but not for the reason you might think…he actually thinks Facebook has good educational potential…an interesting idea, indeed… [Fortune]

Well, Google is mad as hell…er, at least not gonna take it anymore…”it” being Switzerland’s supreme court ruling that requires the company to blur images of people in Google Street View. The company apparently threatened to “wipe” all photos of Swiss people from Street View entirely if Switzerland’s court did not overturn the decision…and away we go! [AP]

But of course, that’s not all for Google today. Apparently, the Justice Department is also investigating Google Advertising for some type of undisclosed violation that may or may not relate to privacy… [NY Times]

And because we can’t go a week without someone somewhere in the US suing Apple – another suit was filed against the company, as well as Pandora Media and The Weather Channel, alleging that those companies apps have/had been sharing users’ location information with 3rd party ad networks without those users’ consent… [CNET]

Interestingly, while Congress seemed to have taken such umbrage with Apple and Google’s practice of collecting iOS and Android device users locations, apparently the Justice Department has nothing bad to say about the practice…in fact, it wants Congress to introduce a bill that would require mobile providers to collect such information in order to help it catch criminals… [InformationWeek]

So I feel like we’ve mentioned this a lot here, but there was a time when Facebook apps “leaked” users’ information to app makers. Apparently now, however, that “problem” has been fixed, and it should be business as usual…until the next Facebook privacy “fiasco,” that is… [WSJ]

Nevertheless, we’re not done with Facebook yet today…I’m sure you’ll all be interested to hear about how Facebook apparently hired the PR firm Burson-Marsteller to pitch a story about how Google products (specifically something called “Social Circle”) violate users’ privacy…classy move all around, guys… [Business Insider]

Oh, but there’s more…not about Facebook specifically, but rather, its users. Apparently, according to Consumer Reports’ recently released, “2011 Consumer Reports State of the Net Survey” a third of Facebook users under 18, are actually under 13. But even more interesting (and relevant) is that about one in every five ["active"] US Facebook users uses ZERO privacy controls… [PC World]

And finally, not to keep you hanging too long on how yesterday’s hearing on Apple and Google’s mobile location tracking went – apparently by the end of the three hour hearing, Senator Al Franken, who convened the hearing and has been significantly involved in privacy legislation since becoming head of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, remained unconvinced that users’ privacy was “being respected” (in that users don’t have the ability to opt in or [more importantly] out), given the practice… [PC Mag]

So, obviously the biggest thing going on in digital privacy today is the Congressional hearing called by Senator Al Franken. As we’ve mentioned a couple of times, the events of the last couple of weeks have really spurred quick movement in the area, and testifying at today’s hearing will be representatives from Apple, Google, the FTC, the Justice Department, and “a consumer advocate”… [USA Today]

But at the aforementioned hearing, the powers that be ought not to think too narrowly on the subject of mobile privacy, singling out apps as the problem. Clearly there are much broader digital privacy concerns and implications at play here, and so Congress should be thinking about how it can introduce a comprehensive bill that covers all of the different privacy issues through the web, mobile, social networking and any other relevant aspect of digital… [CNET]

Either way, as we noted yesterday, there’s now a second digital privacy bill in the mix that incorporates the spirit of the FTC’s “Do Not Track” mechanism for protecting users. If you were wondering how said bill was received by privacy advocate groups, as you might expect, that would be warmly. It’s also important to note that it’s not advocating a strict “Do Not Track” that wouldn’t allow companies to track users at all, but rather it would require companies to offer users the ability to opt out, and respect such decision unless absolutely necessary for its site to function… [Ars Technica]

Not long ago, we mentioned that the upcoming version of Google’s Chrome browser will include a feature that allows users to delete the infamously pesky Flash cookies that we’ve also noted in the past can be quite a pain to get rid of. Well, the beta version of that release is apparently now available… [Google Chrome Blog]

And with all of the scrutiny on cookie tracking over the last year or so, many (mostly in advertising) have been concerned that if new legislation bars companies from cookie’ing users, digital commerce may suffer greatly. But even if that were to happen, Buyosphere may have a better way. Instead of companies “silently” collecting data on users, Buyosphere allows users to provide information to companies on what types of things are relevant to them…which, of course, in the end is pretty much the same thing, but what separates the cookie method from Buyosphere is the transparency and control… [Mashable]

Speaking of the practice of cookie’ing – as you may remember, we’ve mentioned that the EU has proposed a ban on said practice. Well, apparently the UK’s Information Commissioner thought publishing “guidance on the implementation” of the new proposal would help everyone better understand what the proposed regulation actually meant. Unfortunately, by this account, it did not…in any way… [WSJ]

Well, despite the fact that “Do Not Track” did not end up making it into the bill John Kerry and John McCain recently introduced to Congress, it still seems to be getting to be a hot time for the concept. Indeed, not only is West Virginia Senator John Rockefeller considering introducing a “Do Not Track” bill himself, but the battle continues over California’s “Do Not Track” law that we mentioned had been introduced not long ago… [Washington Post - Rockefeller Bill | Sacramento Bee - California Bill]

And while we’re talking about what’s going on in Washington, perhaps you remember that tomorrow is the big day for location privacy on Capitol Hill. Specifically, Senator Al Franken had convened a hearing on location-tracking and the recent revelations from Apple and Google regarding such tracking. So, naturally, Apple will be participating, sending its VP of Software Technology Bud Tribble to handle the Committee’s inquiries… [CNET]

But all this activity and interest in the area of digital privacy is probably not a bad thing, considering that consumers really had no legislative protection for/from the recent serious security breaches of Sony’s Playstation Network and Online Entertainment Network, as well as that of Epsilon, the email provider for a number of major businesses, and others… [NY Times]

Oh, and about that Sony breach…apparently Sony may not have seen the last of those skilled hackers (or others, for that matter)… [CNET]

Oh boy, does this sound like a mess…so, apparently Aaron’s, Inc., which allows consumers to rent home appliances and other similar accouterments (including PCs) eventually leading to ownership, has the ability (which it allegedly has exercised) to “remotely access, intercept and monitor customers’ private, personal electronic communications, information, screen shots, keystrokes or images captured on webcams” (from PCs rented by its customers)…or at least that’s what the complaint filed against it says… [TIME]

For the second day in a row, I feel it’s necessary to point out that if you have dedicated any remotely significant amount of time to thinking about/studying Google, it should come as no surprise that in addition to “tracking” users for the value of location data, it also launched its Google Voice service a couple of years back so that it could gather data on “better learn how to transcribe human voice to text”… [Gizmodo]

And what would a Privacy Net post be without multiple Google stories? In addition to the “revelation” above, Google’s South Korean offices also were apparently raided yesterday “on suspicion that its mobile advertising unit, AdMob, had illegally collected users’ location data without users’ consent.” Of course, you probably remember that South Korea was already in the process of investigating Google for said location data collection, so I guess you could say the heat is now officially on in South Korea… [NY Times]

Finally, this probably won’t come as much of a surprise if you follow the headlines here day in and day out, but you might say that in terms of privacy regulation, Europe is the global leader, with its composite nations taking rather firm stances on privacy. But it’s not jsut the varied countries that are at the forefront. Indeed, yesterday EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said she “would propose extending unionwide rules about breaches of privacy to online banking, video games, shopping and social media,” and reiterated that “any company operating in the EU market or any online product that is targeted at E.U. consumers should comply with E.U. rules” [NY Times]

In the days immediately following the uproar over the revelation that Google and Apple “track” users of their devices, we mentioned last week that some consumers wasted no time in suing Apple for that practice. Well, Apple ain’t alone in that anymore – two Michigan women have now sued Google for the same chicanery… [Detroit News]

Elsewhere in Google and mobile privacy – Google’s Mobile Director Jason Spero recently commented that he thought the Interactive Advertising Bureau should take a more active stance on mobile privacy, and generally set guidelines so companies can have a better idea of how to build/tweak their mobile apps/products… [PC Mag]

So, we mentioned last week that Sony’s Playstation Network had been hacked and that as a result, millions of users’ personal information was compromised, including potentially credit card info. Well, the latter indeed seems to be turning out to be true, as Sony said info on something like 10 million credit card may have been compromised, although nothing has been confirmed… [Kotaku]

I’m not sure we didn’t know this already, but in addition to Apple and Google as device OS makers, our own mobile phone companies also store geolocation data on us (at least in part for our own safety), though they haven’t experienced the same level of scrutiny (yet, anyway) for it. Either way, Verizon apparently will start putting warning labels on its phones warning users that it does in fact have the ability (and may) “track” their movements… [Forbes]

Finally, it’s not like Sony’s recent breach (noted above and last Thursday) was the first of its kind – indeed, at least several major such breaches have occurred over the last six months to a year – but while it might seem counterintuitive, customers of those vendors/companies who had their security breached have actually stayed as customers of those vendors/companies… [AP]

So, obviously most of our coverage this week has focused on Apple and Google’s iOS/Android location-tracking privacy situation. And we’ve mentioned how Apple first stated pretty matter of factly that it does not track users, then blamed it on a glitch they are planning to fix in a forthcoming OS update. But apparently, in addition to all of that, Steve Jobs himself will actually be testifying in Al Franken’s hearing on mobile privacy… [Mac Observer]

However, that may not be enough for one Congressman. Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington actually wants the FTC to investigate this location-tracking issue further (although he seems to have focused solely on Apple…maybe no one told him about Google’s role in the issue), advocating potentially adding another layer to the scrutiny… [CNET]

But the scrutiny brought upon Apple because of this location tracking issue isn’t just coming down in the US. In fact, several European nations are already investigating Apple’s iPhone/iPad to see if the devices violate their privacy rules, which if you remember can be (and most often are) stricter than those here in the States…basically meaning this could turn into what last year’s Street View debacle was for Google (which it is still feeling the effects of, as you may well know), only for Apple… [Bloomberg]

And while we’re on the subject, Mashable both breaks down “What Locationgate Says About How Consumers Perceive Information Privacy” and asks “Are You Satisfied with Apple’s Response to the iPhone-Tracking Debacle”… [What Locationgate Says | Are You Satisfied with Apple's Response]

Finally, one thing we have yet to mention this week was that recently, Sony’s Playstation Network was hacked, and indeed the hackers got a hold of the Network’s users’ personal data, including “their names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and PlayStation user names and passwords” and potentially even their credit card numbers…eek… [NY Times]

Skype for Android users – listen up. Apparently the company recently discovered that (like some other Android apps) its users personal data may have actually been “vulnerable — if a user unwittingly installed a malicious third-party app to his or her device”… [Mashable]

And speaking of mobile privacy, apparently Google – while beefing up its ability to target mobile ads – is giving users the ability to opt-out of more targeted mobile ads (meaning contextually relevant, I believe, based on your user data), in addition to a couple of other privacy protections (including “double anonymization” and in-app notices)… [Search Engine Land]

A while back you may remember that we mentioned a federal case holding that said police officers were(are) required to obtain warrants before tracking anyone using GPS. There is actually a split among circuits on the issue, and so the Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to take the case and resolve the split on the 4th amendment issue… [AP]

Elsewhere in the Obama administration’s stance on US digital privacy rules – apparently the White House wants to institute a new secure online ID system that would give users a way to identify themselves universally that would help prevent identity theft…according to this report, “the plan envisions replacing today’s reality of generally having to remember passwords for dozens of sites where consumers have already lodged their sensitive data, such as credit card numbers” [Wired]

We haven’t covered US net neutrality issues much, but apparently the EU recently decided that the practice of ISPs monitoring users downloads for those downloading copyright infringing material (and shutting such downloading down) actually violates user privacy… [paidcontent.org]

And of course, we’ve been highlight the US’ efforts in privacy legislation a lot more lately (with the introduction of last week’s privacy bill), but also over in the EU, they seem to be taking a somewhat similar approach, which happens to be more amenable to the advertising industry. It is currently working with the companies that make the browsers we all use to surf the web to integrate a button that would allow users to either opt-in or not be tracked using cookies, and the effort would also require any site that wants to place a cookie on a users machine to disclose that it is doing so, with a little icon integrated that when clicked opts the user out of such tracking… [Telegraph]

Finally, a while back you may remember the Indian government in a standoff with RIM over its desire to be able to monitor Blackberry users’ communications within its country. Well, it’s back on that detail, only with a new target – Nokia. Apparently India does not want Nokia’s new push email service to launch without the proper ability for it to monitor such communications…and here we go… [Engadget]

When Microsoft released its latest version of Internet Explorer – IE9 – one of the biggest new features it offered users was a “Do Not Track” opt-out of ad tracking. Well, it’s not alone in integrating such a feature into the latest version of its browser, as Apple did the same in the recently minted version of its Safari browser… [paidcontent.org]

While it might be encouraging to some that John Kerry and John McCain just introduced a new digital privacy bill recently, it would probably be naive to think that even if it passes, it will mean companies won’t be able to “find” us online…of course, that’s doesn’t really seem to be the point of the new legislation (so much as it is being transparent about what’s being collected, why, and offering the ability to opt out), but I’m just reporting what I read… [CNN]

Oh, and don’t be surprised if you see numerous articles to this effect popping up around the web while the new privacy bill is making its way around congress – “Five Big Problems With The New Privacy Bill of Rights”… [PC World]

Finally, according to a study of 65 Columbia students, the University researchers looking into Facebook privacy controls concluded that those controls are “fundamentally flawed” because the students studied were “either unintentionally sharing information they’d intended not to or unable to share something as desired” and were either “unable to correct” their settings as desired or “had given up trying”… [Chicago Tribune]